This Day in History

[Amnorix]

Today...

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Jenson71

He was my age -- 22 years old.

One thing you learn once you get to know enough historical characters -- if you're really going to do something BIG in life, you probably are very, VERY far along your way to doing it by the time you're 30, 35 at the latest.

[Amnorix]

May 16.

1770. 14 year old Marie Antionette marries 15 year old Louis-Auguste, the Dauphin of France, who in four years will take the French throne. At age 38, months after her husband was already executed, the "Widow Capet" is beheaded by guillotine.

1836. Edgar Allen Poe, then 27 years old, marries his 13 year old first cousin, Virginia.

1866. Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.

1868. President Andrew Johnson is acquitted by one vote in his impeachment trial in the US Senate.

1920. Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.

1966. China begins the Cultural Revolution by issuing teh "May 16th Notice". The Cultural Revolution completely revamps the social, political and economic order in Communist China for its nearly one billion people. Millions die, and a tremendous number of historical artifacts are destroyed.

[Amnorix]

May 17

1792. 24 stockbrokers gather under a buttonwood tree outside of 68 Wall Street, New York City, NY and sign an agreement called the Buttonwood Agreement. It is noticeably short.
　

Originally Posted by The Buttonwood Agreement

We the Subscribers, Brokers for the Purchase and Sale of the Public Stock, do hereby solemnly promise and pledge ourselves to each other, that we will not buy or sell from this day for any person whatsoever, any kind of Public Stock, at least than one quarter of one percent Commission on the Specie value and that we will give preference to each other in our Negotiations. In Testimony whereof we have set our hands this 17th day of May at New York, 1792.

25 years later the organization adopt a constitution and name the organization the New York Stock & Exchange Board. As of May 2008, the New York Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange by market captialization, with its listed companies having a then-value of $28.5 trillion.


1902. Greek archeologists discover the Antikythera Mechanism. Dated to 150-100 BC, it is a fascinatingly complex device designed to predict astronomical movements. Nothing of similar complexity will be developed until the 14th century, when astronomical clocks are invented. It is, effectively, the oldest known scientific calculator and has been referred to as the world's first analog computer, although its seemingly flawless manufacturing suggests that it may have had predecessors that are as yet uncovered.

A schematic of what is believed to be the full device (not all was recovered):





1954. The United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The unanimous ruling overturns the SCOTUS's previous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, and declares that separate educational institutions for separate races are inherently unequal, and therefore violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution's 14th Amendment. The decision paves the way for integration and the Civil Rights Movement that will blossom in the 60s. The decision is quickly and easily accepted in Topeka, Kansas, which had only had segregated schools at the elementary school level. Other states adn governors, however, were not nearly so accepting. In 1957, Governnor Orval Faubus called out his national guard to block black students' entry to Little Rock High School. President and former five star general Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower responded by deployment a portion of the 101st Airborne Division and by federalizing Faubus' national guard. In 1963, Governor George Wallace of Alabama personally stood in the doorway at the Unviersity of Alabama to prevent two black students from enrolling and followed his "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" policy that was first articulated in his 1963 inaugural address. He moves aside at the behest of Alabama National Guard general Henry Graham, who was ordered by President Kennedy to remove the governor.

Wallace will go on to have an interesting career. Elected four times as governor of Alabama (non-consecutive terms), he runs for President in 1972, but is shot while on campaign in Maryland in an assassination attempt. He survives, but one of the bullets lodges in his spine, rendering him paralyzed below the waist. In the late 70s, he declares that he is a born-again Christian, and that his policy regarding segregation was misguided. He doesn't comment on whether the increasing voter turnout of Alabama's minority population played a role in his decision. During his last term in office, in the mid 80s, he appints a record number of African-Americans to public office. He was married three times. His first wife died shortly after being elected the first (and still only) female governor of Alabama. His second wife was an attractive former performer, whose mother, a well-known colorful and notorious woman said of the quite-short governor "Why George ain't titty high". After being divorced, he married a country music singer.
　
1990. The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

1928. Mickey Mouse premiers in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.

Not Steamboat Willie?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

1990. The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

Oddly enough, that was the year that self-installed closet organizing kits became popular.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Not Steamboat Willie?

I thought that, too. But it seems his first appearance (sans sound) was Plane Crazy.

[Amnorix]

May 18.

1152. King Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, which among other notable effects, results in a movie with Peter O'Toole as the King and Katherine Hepburn as his wife some 800 years later (the Lion in Winter).

1860. Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican nomination for President, defeating rivals William Seward (who will go on to be Secretary of State and become better known for being involved in "Seward's Folly", the monumentally stupid (as it was then thought at the time) idea of buying Alaska from Russia for $7.2MM) and abolitionist Salmon Chase (who will become Secretary of the Treasury).

1863. The Siege of Vicksburg begins.

1896. The US Supreme Court hands down Plessy v. Ferguson, declaring that the "separate but equal" doctrine passes Constitutional muster.

1980. Mount St. Helen's erupts in Washington state, killing 53 people and causing approximately $3 billion in damage.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Donger

I thought that, too. But it seems his first appearance (sans sound) was Plane Crazy.

And you can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMoAXM96ZE0

[Rain Man]

I would've bet anything that it was Steamboat Willie, but in reading more about it, I guess Steamboat Willie was his breakout role in his third film. I guess it's kind of like Harrison Ford being in American Graffitti before Star Wars.

Good thing I didn't bet the house on that.

[Amnorix]

May 19.

Not a really big day.

1499. Catherine of Aragon, then 12, is married by proxy to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, then 13. They do not meet for another two years, and soon thereafter Arthur dies. Seeking to avoid paying back the dowry, King Henry VII arranges to have her marry his second son, Henry, Duke of York, who will become Henry VIII. His efforts to divorce Catherine will result in Henry's break with the Catholic Church and the conversion of England to Protestantism.

Her daughter will become Queen Mary I of England, better known as Bloody Mary, whose efforts to revert the kingdom back to Catholicism are reversed by her successor, and half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I.

1802. Napoleon founds the Legion of Honor.

1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the MExican-American War and ceded over vast amounts of territory to the US.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Donger

Oddly enough, that was the year that self-installed closet organizing kits became popular.

[Amnorix]

May 20

325. The first Nicean Council is held to resolve some outstanding theological issues in the Catholic Church. The first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church, it helped resolve such issues as the relationship of Christ to the Father, the divinity of Jesus, and the calculation of Easter.

1862. President Lincoln signs the first Homestead Act into law. The law allows anyone to take title to land outside the original 13 colonies if they (1) filed an application, (2) improved the land, and (3) filed for a deed. The act allowed a homesteader to take up to 160 acres for free, and was open to any person who had not taken up arms against the United States. The law remains in effect (it was subsequently updated a couple fo times) until a new law was passed over 100 years later, in 1976. Under the law, 1.6 million homesteads were awarded covering 270 million acres, or 10% of the entire area of the United States.

Unfortunately, however, the law was frequently abused. Designed to promote agriculture, the acreage covered was usually too small to support a family, and was instead used to lay claim to resources, especially water and timber and, less often, oil.

1873. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a patent for blue jeans iwth copper rivets.

1927. The Treaty of Jedda is signed, by which the United Kingdom recognizes the independent sovereignty of the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which will later be unified into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1940. Auschwitz receives its first prisoners.

1941. German paratroopers assault Crete. Though they will ultimately win the island, the cost is much higher to the elite German paratroopers than
the Germans expected, and Hitler is very reluctant to use them on such a mission again. This leads to a significant strategic error later when the Germans fail to take Malta, which is used as a base by the British to impinge German supply lines to North Africa.

1956. The first American airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped on Bikini Atoll.

1983. First publication of the discovery of teh HIV virus which leads to AIDS.

[Amnorix]

May 21.

878. The Muslim Sultan of Sicily captures Syracuse. I mostly include this one as I suspect most people have no idea that there once was a Muslim Sultan of Sicily...

1956. Pro Slavery forces enter Lawrence, Kansas and burn parts of the town. Thsi leads to a reaction by abolitionists, and the era becomes known as "Bleeding Kansas".

1871. French Troops enter the Paris Commune.

1881. Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross.

1927. Charles LIndberg completes the first solo transatlantic flight.

1932. Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to complete a transatlantic flight.

[Hydrae]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

May 21.

878. The Muslim Sultan of Sicily captures Syracuse. I mostly include this one as I suspect most people have no idea that there once was a Muslim Sultan of Sicily...

1856. Pro Slavery forces enter Lawrence, Kansas and burn parts of the town. Thsi leads to a reaction by abolitionists, and the era becomes known as "Bleeding Kansas".

1871. French Troops enter the Paris Commune.

1881. Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross.

1927. Charles LIndberg completes the first solo transatlantic flight.

1932. Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to complete a transatlantic flight.

Fixed you typo.

I love that you have kept this going. I haven't looked back, are these different events than you posted a year ago?

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Hydrae

Fixed you typo.

I love that you have kept this going. I haven't looked back, are these different events than you posted a year ago?

No. I initially started this thread on January 1, 2009, but sometime in April I had to stop as I was both very busy at work and gearing up to move. I just couldn't find the time.

Life settled down after we moved last summer, and by fall I was ready to go again, but I figured I'd wait until I got to where I had left off and then pick up from there and continue on.

Some of the earlier ones are REALLY detailed. When I had enough time and interest in a particular item, I'll go all out. You might want to start from page one and just go from there. I should be able to find the time to do more of those going forward, but the opportunity hasn't quite arisen.

Two of the longer ones:

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showp...4&postcount=82


http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showp...1&postcount=99